How are you?

American English

Very common, often just a polite greeting, not always expecting a detailed answer.

Typical reply: “Good, thanks. How about you?” (even if not really “good”).

Tone is casual and friendly.

Canadian English

Used the same way as in American English.

Canadians might also add extra politeness: “Good, thanks! And yourself?”

Sometimes paired with “Hi there” or “Hey” for warmth.

British English

Also common, but sometimes interpreted more literally.

You might hear “Not bad, thanks” or “I’m alright” more often than “Good”.

Can sound slightly more formal than in North America, depending on context.

How do you do?

American English

Rare, sounds very formal or old-fashioned.

Most Americans would never use it in daily conversation.

Canadian English

Similar to American usage — hardly used except in very formal, ceremonial, or joking contexts.

British English

Still exists in formal settings (business introductions, very polite first meetings).

Important: it’s not really a question — it’s a formal greeting.

Standard reply: “How do you do?” (you repeat it back, rather than answering literally).

talk the talk

Sure, she talks the talk, but can she walk the walk? Will she actually do what she promises?

walk the walk

As the saying goes, “Don’t talk the talk unless you can walk the walk!”

pie in the sky

Is that even possible, or is that ‘pie in the sky’ thinking? — Rachel Wells, Forbes, 1 Jan. 2025

meet one’s Waterloo

The governor finally met his Waterloo in the last election.

catch-22

noun

I’m in a catch-22: to get the job I need experience, but how do I get experience if I can’t get the job?

myopia

myopia

noun

She wears eyeglasses to correct her myopia.

Every hour children spend on screens raises chance of myopia, study finds - The Guardian

atropine

atropine

noun

Atropine

reap

reap

verb

The workers were out reaping the crops.

The workers were out reaping in the fields.

He reaped large profits from his investments.

squid

squid

noun

sirloin

sirloin

noun

The star of the kitchen is the steak trompo, a huge beehive of strip and sirloin steaks skewered on a vertical spit, glossy with fat. — Helen Rosner, New Yorker, 24 Aug. 2025

bewitching

bewitching

adjective

her bewitching eyes

a bewitching smile

bubbly

bubbly

adjective

a bubbly bottle of pop

She is pretty, bubbly, and smart.

cicada

cicada

noun

In the forests of North America, there is a species of cicada with a very strange life cycle. For 17 years, these cicadas hide underground doing very little except sucking on the roots of the trees. Then in May of the seventeenth year, they emerge at the surface en masse to invade the forest—up to a million of them per acre. - The Number Mysteries, by Marcus du Sautoy

artichoke

artichoke

noun

pigment

pigment

noun

Pigments are used to give color to paint, ink, and plastic.

Hinton often told the story of the time Minsky taught him how to make “perfect black” — a color with no color at all. You couldn’t make perfect black with pigments, Minsky explained, because they always reflected the light. - Chapter 2 Promise “old ideas are new”, Genius Makers - The Mavericks Who Brought AI to Google, Facebook, and the World, by Cade Metz

commoner

commoner

noun

a prince who married a commoner

In Beethoven’s time Vienna still had a rigid class-based society each having their own brothels, restaurants and coffee houses (cafés). Beethoven, as a commoner and darling to aristocrats, had access to all kinds. Housing was not the brightest feature of contemporary Vienna thus locals spent leisure time in coffee houses. - Beethoven and his coffee

chore

chore

noun

The children were each assigned different household chores.

Doing taxes can be a real chore.

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When someone is doing a chore, what do you say?

“Can I help?”

hum

hum

verb

humming along with the music

The garden was humming with bees.

The refrigerator hummed in the background.

I was humming to myself.

the museum hummed with visitors

hum a tune

I hummed a little song.

the place was humming

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When people are talking, is it good manners to hum?

Humming when others are talking is disrespectful and distracting. Don’t hum!

pitmaster

pitmaster

noun

He was one of Houston’s most celebrated pitmasters and helped to kick off the barbecue renaissance here. — J. C. Reid

bellyache

bellyache

noun

He ate too much chili and it gave him a bellyache.

aerobic

aerobic

adjective

aerobic respiration

aerobic exercises like running and swimming

Aerobic exercise involves pushing your heart rate to 70% to 85% of its maximum, and keeping it there for 20 to 60 minutes at a time. — Tara Parker-Pope

dispersal

dispersal

noun

the dispersal of plant seeds in the forests through natural means

fencing

fencing

noun

Fencing is a combat sport that features sword fighting.

dough

dough

noun

Play-Doh, also known as Play-Dough

doughnut

doughnut

noun

drawing doughnuts in the sand

donut

noun

Coffee and donuts go hand in hand. — Sarah Martens, Better Homes & Gardens, 11 Sep. 2025

How ‘Doughnut’ Became ‘Donut’

muffin

muffin

noun

equinox

equinox

noun

September equinox

barbell

barbell

noun

dumbbell

dumbbell

noun

I feel like a dumbbell for making such a stupid mistake.

dummy

dummy

noun

The device is not a real bomb but a dummy.

Only a dummy would ignore the safety warnings.

dumb

dumb

adjective

pretended to be dumb

asking dumb questions

I’m not dumb enough to believe that.

He was born deaf and dumb.

treadmill

treadmill

noun

My fitness center has three rows of treadmills and ellipticals. — Jeanne Phillips, Mercury News, 17 Sep. 2025

chin-up

chin-up

noun

Some examples include pull-ups, chin-ups, dumbbell rows, bent-over rows, lat pulldowns and inverted rows. — Melissa Rudy, FOXNews.com, 13 Sep. 2025

push-up

push-up

noun

Your arm muscles quiver lifting weights or during push-ups. — Bryan Robinson, Forbes.com, 4 Sep. 2025

stretch

stretch

verb

It’s important to stretch before you exercise.

She woke up and stretched her arms above her head.

noun

These are good stretches for your leg muscles.

I always spend a few minutes doing stretches before I exercise.

lunge

lunge

verb

The crocodile lunged at its prey.

noun

alligator

alligator

noun

crocodile

crocodile

noun

acquisition

acquisition

noun

Parmy Olson is a technology columnist at Bloomberg. Her reporting on Facebook’s $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp and the subsequent fallout resulted in two honorable mentions in the SABEW business journalism awards.

pigment

pigment

noun

Hinton often told the story of the time Minsky taught him how to make “perfect black” — a color with no color at all. You couldn’t make perfect black with pigments, Minsky explained, because they always reflected the light. - Chapter 2 Promise “old ideas are new”, Genius Makers, The Mavericks Who Brought AI to Google, Facebook, and the World, by Cade Metz

Education is one of the key words of our time. A man without an education, many of us believe, is an unfortunate victim of adverse circumstances, deprived of one of the greatest twentieth-century opportunities. Convinced of the importance of education, modern states ‘invest’ in institutions of learning to get back ‘interest’ in the form of a large group of enlightened young men and women who are potential leaders. Education, with its cycles of instruction so carefully worked out, punctuated by textbooks — those purchasable wells of wisdom — what would civilization be like without its benefits?

So much is certain: that we would have doctors and preachers, lawyers and defendants, marriages and births - but our spiritual outlook would be different. We would lay less stress on ‘facts and figures’ and more on a good memory, on applied psychology, and on the capacity of a man to get along with his fellow-citizens. If our educational system were fashioned after its bookless past we would have the most democratic form of ‘college’ imaginable. Among tribal₁ people all knowledge inherited by tradition is shared by all; it is taught to every member of the tribe so that in this respect everybody is equally equipped for life.

It is the ideal condition of the ‘equal start‘ which only our most progressive forms of modern education try to regain. In primitive cultures the obligation to seek and to receive the traditional instruction is binding to all. There are no ‘illiterates’ - if the term can be applied to peoples without a script - while our own compulsory school attendance became law in Germany in 1642, in France in 1806, and in England in 1876, and is still non-existent in a number of ‘civilized’ nations. This shows how long it was before we deemed it necessary to make sure that all our children could share in the knowledge accumulated by the ‘happy few’ during the past centuries.

Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means. All are entitled to an equal start. There is none of the hurry which, in our society, often hampers the full development of a growing personality. There, a child grows up under the ever-present attention of his parents; therefore the jungles and the savannahs know of no ‘juvenile delinquency’. No necessity of making a living away from home results in neglect of children, and no father is confronted with his inability to ‘buy’ an education for his child.

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Lesson 33 Education in New Concept English Book 4: Fluency in English by Louis George Alexander were excerpted from Chapter 10 Education without Books in the The Origin Of Things - A Cultural History of Man by Julius E. Lips.

Why is education democratic in bookless, tribal societies?

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• The Origin Of Things by Julius E Lips
• [1] original text is : Among the people whom we like to call savages all knowledge inherited by tradition is shared by all;

read (someone) like a book

• understand what someone is thinking from his body language.

My mom always knows when I’m lying. She can read me like a book.

There are a number of books on the market which suggest that it is possible to learn to read a person like a book.

talk big

Linda likes to talk big. She claims she’s visited every country.

Expressons with “Give”

give someone a lift

Can you give me a lift into town?

I had a big suitcase, so Selma offered to give me a lift to the airport.

cruise

cruise

noun

• especially : a tour by ship

We went on a weeklong cruise down the Yangtze River.

They went on a cruise for their honeymoon.

Bruce Anchor Cruises

yacht

yacht

noun

For the past 18 months, orcas have been attacking boats and yachts in the Mediterranean Sea near the Strait of Gibraltar. — Darren Orf, Popular Mechanics, 30 June 2023

surfboard

surfboard

noun

deck chair

flip-flop

flip-flop

noun

snorkel

snorkel

noun

Additionally, each lagoon has areas for kayak, paddle board, floating tube and snorkel gear rentals. — Patrick Connolly, The Orlando Sentinel, 21 July 2025

palm

palm

noun

pelican

pelican

noun

albatross

albatross

noun

recorder

recorder

noun

Peppa pig learns to play the recorder.

widower

widower

noun

Grief Forum – Loss of a Spouse: An eight-week program for widows and widowers who have lost their loved one. — Joe Rassel, The Orlando Sentinel, 16 July 2025

yucky

yucky

adjective

The water was dirty and smelled yucky.

yummy

yummy

adjective

yummy desserts

a yummy meal that is also nutritious

parasol

parasol

noun

There were beach parasols in bright red-and-white stripes. — New York Times, 12 May 2020

pal

pal

noun

We’ve been pals since we were kids.

rub

rub

verb

Don’t rub too hard or you’ll tear the paper.

toss

toss

verb

toss a ball around

noun

They decided what to do by a coin toss.

the toss of a coin

gobble

gobble

verb

gobbled the sandwiches like they hadn’t eaten for days

Gobble breakfast.

nebulous

nebulous

adjective

A lot of philosophical concepts can seem nebulous at first, but a good instructor can cut through the jargon and help students see how they apply to day-to-day life.

nautilus

nautilus

noun

Nautilus shell

dahlia

dahlia

noun

fern

fern

noun

guinea pig

carriage

carriage

noun

scavenge

scavenge

verb

The bears scavenged the woods for food.

scavenger

scavenger

noun

Scanvenger Hunt

somersault

somersault

noun

The gymnast turned a somersault.

wrestle

wrestle

verb

They’ll be wrestling with each other for the championship.

deciduous

deciduous

adjective

maples, birches, and other deciduous trees

the bare branches of a deciduous tree in winter

deciduous trees

sprout

sprout

verb

seeds sprouting in the spring

The tree is already sprouting leaves.

The garden is sprouting weeds.

blossom

blossom

verb

he fruit tree seemed to blossom overnight once the warm spring weather arrived

noun

The cherry blossoms remain a major draw this time of year for Japan. — Rachel Chang, Condé Nast Traveler, 27 Feb. 2024

vine

vine

noun

Pinch off the tips of squash and pumpkin vines to force energy into developing fruits instead of growing longer vines. — Andy Wilcox, Better Homes & Gardens, 6 Aug. 2025

bud

bud

noun

The bush has plenty of buds but no flowers yet.

a plan still in the bud

bandanna

bandanna

noun

breakdown

breakdown

noun

Both sides are to blame for the breakdown in communication.

parallel bars

plural noun

Greeting People

For greetings at different times of day, use these time tips:

Good morning: use before noon 12:00 P.M.

Good afternoon: use from 12:01 P.M. until approximately 5:00 P.M.

Good evening: use from approximately 5:00 P.M. until midnight 12:00 A.M.

Meeting People

In North America, eye contact is expected and acceptable during a coversation.

Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand. - Thomas Carlyle

Never put off till tomorrow what can be done today. — Mark Twain

It is common sense to take a method and try it: If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something. - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out. — Robert Collier

bite off more than you can chew

I think he’s bitten off more than he can chew taking all those classes.

give someone a shout

I’ll give you a shout when it’s time to leave.

Give me a shout when you’ve finished in the bathroom.

neighborhood

neighborhood

noun

They bought a house in a beautiful neighborhood.

The whole neighborhood heard about it.

block

block

noun

We took a walk around the block.

She lived on our block.

The store is three blocks down on the right.

crowbar

crowbar

noun

The door was swollen shut and workers used crowbars to open it.

folktale

folktale

noun

West African folktales that continue to be passed from generation to generation through storytelling.

haze

haze

noun

The bar was filled with a smoky haze.

I’m good

“How are you doing?” “I’m good, thanks.”

“More coffee?” “No, I’m good, thanks.”

“Would you like anything more to drink?” “I’m good, thanks.”

sea change

The early 2000s witnessed a sea change in public opinion about smoking in public places.

or something

Can I get you a glass of wine or something?

crunch time

with only three minutes left in the game, it was definitely crunch time

stick around

we stuck around afterwards to help clean up